Sanitation/procedures at the vet? New kitty owner.

Hello. I just got a kitten recently (my first furry pet) and was wondering if some of you could help educate me on what sanitation exceptions to have at the vet. As someone with OCD I easily get uncomfortable in these situations. I took my kitty to two vets this week (left the first one rather abruptly as I felt the conditions were not up to par. The scale where they weighed her looked filthy and I had bad vibes). Went to a second one and felt okay until they administered an oral antibiotic to my kitten, then shoved the dispenser back into the bottle on the shelf. All I could think was, "wait... how many pets have used that? Do you clean it??" When asking friends with pets about medicine they say their vet sends them home with medicine to administer themselves.

Please help give me clear expectations for sanitary conditions. I need to go back in a few weeks for a follow up (more shots). I want to feel okay about this place but if not I may eventually move onto yet another vet.

I too would have felt a bit shocked if my vet had returned a used syringe into a medication bottle that was not then given to me to finish, or if they had not thrown away that syringe if they we're keeping the medication for future use. Any muti dose medications(which I think some deworming medications are) should have a brand new syringe for every dose given. I would expect a vet office to be just as clean and have the same standards as a hospital.

Hello. I just got a kitten recently (my first furry pet) and was wondering if some of you could help educate me on what sanitation exceptions to have at the vet. As someone with OCD I easily get uncomfortable in these situations. I took my kitty to two vets this week (left the first one rather abruptly as I felt the conditions were not up to par. The scale where they weighed her looked filthy and I had bad vibes). Went to a second one and felt okay until they administered an oral antibiotic to my kitten, then shoved the dispenser back into the bottle on the shelf. All I could think was, "wait... how many pets have used that? Do you clean it??" When asking friends with pets about medicine they say their vet sends them home with medicine to administer themselves.

Please help give me clear expectations for sanitary conditions. I need to go back in a few weeks for a follow up (more shots). I want to feel okay about this place but if not I may eventually move onto yet another vet.

Thank you.

It's not just you. I would be grossed out about that as well, and I'm not OCD at all. But when it comes to medical settings where you have no idea what kinds of issues the kitties before yours might have had, that's definitely not ok.

I expect the same thing I expect in my own medical care. I expect the general environment and all the equipment to be clean. I expect anything that comes into contact with anything disease-carrying, which would include the mouth, to either be single-use, or to be in an autoclave packet indicating that it has been sterilized properly.

I have never seen my vet do anything like that. They have done pills using gloved hands and then binned the gloves. Any time my elder kitty needed a poke, I saw the needle come out of the wrapper.

I haven't had the vet do that with a syringe. I'm not OCD but that would really bother me. Usually they just give me the medication. Recently she gave Patches some ear drops and she gave him his first dose in the office but the bottle she used was my bottle to take home.

I am also not OCD, but that would bother me as well. Like others have mentioned, something used to treat my cat for an infection should only have my cat's germs on it. It's bad practice in any case to put anything used into a medication, but I admit to doing that in my own home. If 2 of my cats were sick and on the same kind of medication, I wouldn't swap bottles though.

Thanks for the feedback. The bottle didn't even look tidy (gunked up on top).

I don't know what to do next. I am due to return in 3 weeks. I don't know if I should just not return or what. Will they call me?

I live in a very poor part of the united states and the two places I went to are both a fair distance from my home. To pick another vet would probably mean driving 45min-1hr. Though I am willing to do it. The main thing is I don't want kitty being upset and crying the whole way (she didn't cry coming home, but going there). Just worried what conditions I will find each visit. I don't know how to inspect a place beforehand to avoid this awkward situation from happening over and over. The first place I went to after I asked my church members if they knew of a vet in the area. I assumed they had gone their themselves, but maybe they were just naming a vet. The second place was deemed "clean" by someone else we know. And we see how that turned out. I guess I cannot rely on others' opinions of some of these places. This is really upsetting me. I can't find online reviews for all the places.

Also, I did not see gloves worn by anyone in any of these places. Maybe that's a red flag in itself.

Thanks for the feedback. The bottle didn't even look tidy (gunked up on top).

I don't know what to do next. I am due to return in 3 weeks. I don't know if I should just not return or what. Will they call me?

I live in a very poor part of the united states and the two places I went to are both a fair distance from my home. To pick another vet would probably mean driving 45min-1hr. Though I am willing to do it. The main thing is I don't want kitty being upset and crying the whole way (she didn't cry coming home, but going there). Just worried what conditions I will find each visit. I don't know how to inspect a place beforehand to avoid this awkward situation from happening over and over. The first place I went to after I asked my church members if they knew of a vet in the area. I assumed they had gone their themselves, but maybe they were just naming a vet. The second place was deemed "clean" by someone else we know. And we see how that turned out. I guess I cannot rely on others' opinions of some of these places. This is really upsetting me. I can't find online reviews for all the places.

Also, I did not see gloves worn by anyone in any of these places. Maybe that's a red flag in itself.

What's the follow-up for? If it's something routine, I'd try the third vet. Then you can make the call of which one sucks the least (or hopefully the third one will be great).

If it turns out you have no options for a sufficiently clean veterinarian, I would just start watching them carefully and insisting they do things right. You might become "that person," but your cat is worth it. Ask them to use fresh tools. Ask them to wipe something down if it looks dirty before they expose your cat to it.

As far as gloves, just to be clear, my vet doesn't wear these at all times. It's like if a doctor is just listening to your lungs, they probably won't wear gloves. But if they're messing around in your mouth, they will.

Thank you. I just found one place online that does have reviews and they were high star ratings. One person wrote she even boards her animal there if she leaves town. They didn't say anything about sanitation in the reviews but it may be worth checking out. And just looking at the building image it looks newer/cleaner than the ones I went to. This kitten never had any shots til this week so the return visit is to get another shot and also probably follow up on her upper respiratory issue. They didn't take a culture and don't know if it's bacterial or viral (should they have?) but said they always give that antibiotic (at least in initial visit) so said see if that helps clear it up. Or let it run its course if it's a cold and come back if it's not getting better.

I'm not sure if there's an edit button, but I just wanted to explain better about the first place. They did not put gloves on and were about to do a rectal temp. on my kitty. I stopped her asking about the thermometer and if it was used for all the pets. She said yes the same one is used but they "spray it after each animal and never had a problem." I said I was uncomfortable so she set it down and skipped that part. I did not see it come out of a solution and it was just lying on a counter. The weight scale had a stain that may have been old dried blood, I couldn't tell. The dr did not appear to be there unless they were in the back because I asked if so and so was the dr. She said yes. The woman helping me greeted me at the door and led me into a room without identifying herself or title so I was thinking, "do I see the dr this visit or not?" but I left abruptly before allowing more to be done.